Apparatus for handling sheets or labels



192% P. w. FLEISCHER ET AL LYZ LUH APPARATUS FOR HANDLING SHEETS OR LABELS Filed Feb. 20, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 JLI INVENTORS. PAUL W. Ease/4E5; M CARL LAMB/5L5?- A TTORNEi f 1929- P. w. FLEISCHER ET AL 1,724,077

APPARATUS FOR HANDLING SHEETS OR LABELS Filed Feb. 20, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 "'7 (g b I 1 v 'F "M3 IN VENTOR. PA UL l/ll. FLE/SC HER A TTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 13, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PAUL W. FLEISCHECR AND CARL LAMBELET, 0F WEE IEI AWKEN, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGN- ORS, TO NEW JERSEY MACHINE CORPORATION, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY, A

CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR HAND LING SHEETS 0R LABELS.

Application filed February 20, 1928. Serial No. 255,568.

This invention relates to apparatus for handling and conveying paper sheets or labels and particularly sheets coated on one side thereof with adhesive in a gummy or moist state.

In apparatus of this type as heretofore constructed considerable difficulty is encountered because of the accumulation and hardening of adhesive on certain parts of the apparatus and also because of the tendency of certain types of paper to curl excessively.

The principal object of the present iiavention is to provide a new and improved construction for a machine in which the above mentioned difficulties will be overcome.

In the art of handling and conveying -,paper sheets and labels and applying them adhesively to paper boxes, cans or the like it is a common practice to feed the shee ts automatically to a gumming machine in which a coating of adhesive is applied to the sheets, and, While the paper and adhesive are in a moist condition, to deliver the sheets automatically to a conveyor which transports them to, for example, a box wrapping or a can labeling machine, which applles' the sheets or labels to the articles with which they are to be used. For effecting the delivery of the adhesively coated sheets to the conveyer it is the practice to use a plurality of guide members called reversing fingers which direct the sheets about the periphery of a delivery roll interposed between the gumming machine and the conveyer. As one side of the sheets is entirely coated with adhesive it is desirable to avoid theme of a conveyer having gripping fingers or clamps hence it is expedient to employ a suction belt conveyer for transporting the sheets to the afiixing machine. Apparatus of the type described is employed for handling sheets of many different sizes and shapes, the apparatus being made adjustable so that it can be set for different jobs. When a suction conveyer is used considerable difliculty is encountered in securing the proper adherence of the sheets to the conveyer'; particularly when the sheets being transported are of much smaller size than the maximum which the machine is designed to handle.

Considered in its more specific aspects other objects of the invention are to pro- .mentioned means to be instantly set to the desired position and to employ the same source of suction, used for the suction belt, for-counteracting the tendency ofthe paper toucurl as it is transferred by the delivery ro The above and other objects will appear more fully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein Fig. 1 is a side view partly in section and partly in elevation of an apparatus constructed in accordance with the principles of our invention, the view being taken on the line 1-1 ofFig. 4; Fig. 2 is a plan view of that portion of the front end of the apparatus included within the limits of the line 2+2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a lan view of the structure shown in Fig. 1; ig.

-5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 4, and

Fig. 6 is an .enlarged detail of the adjusting and indicating means for the suction conveyer, the parts shown in this figure being as seen from the line 6-6 of Fig. 5. i

As shown in the drawings, a gumming machine A, which may be of any suitable construction, has the sheets or labels fed automatically thereto by any suitable mechanism and delivers such sheets to a suction conveyer B, which in turn delivers the sheets to any suitable label or sheet affixing machine (not shown). For the purpose of the present application the gumming machine has been illustrated as consisting of a trough or bath 10 adapted to contain a supply of any suitable adhesive in liquid condition.

transfer roll 11 dips into the adhesive in the bath 10 and transfers a coating of such adhesive'to the gumming roll 12. The gumming machine also preferably includes a support 13 for a stack of sheets, labels or the like 14. An suitable transfer or feeding means may e employed for feeding the sheets from the stack to the gumming roll 12. For the purpose of illustration the feeding means has been shown as consisting of a suction head 15 mounted upon an arm 16 which arm is pivotally supported upon a th I transverse shaft 17 and is actuated by a. conlivered no part of the meeting rod 18 from device. The sheets 14 are carried by the suctlon head 15 across the shelf or table 19 to be deto a pair of feed rolls 20. The feeding rolls 20 in turn deliver the sheets to the gumming roll 12, a stripping blade 21 bemg interposed between the any suitable driving wrapping around the periphery of the lower feed roller.

the sheets pass. roller 12 they receive from such roller. Th

across the gumming a coating of adhesive e gumming roller 12 is preferably provided with a plurality of grooves into which project the ends of the reversing fingers 22 which strip the sheet from the gumming roll and direct it upwardly to the conveyer B. The constructional details of the gumming machine form present invention, the machine illustrated in U. S. Patent gust 9, 192 to W. Fleischer.

The conveyer B comprises an upper plate 25 of sheet metal or other suitable material provided throughout its length with a plurality of apertures 26 and a lower plate 27 which is unforaminated and which is spaced from the upper plate as indicated in Figs. 3

Martin Feybusch and Paul and 5 of the drawing. The plates 25, 27 ter- 1 minate at the delivery end of the conveyer a short distance inwardly from the said end and the space between said plates is closed and sealed by a transverse plate 28.

Immediately above the gumming roll 12 a hollow erforated roll 29 is rotatably mounted, sai roll being provided with trunnions 30, 31 mounted in bearings 32, 33 of the side frames 34. .The upper foraminated plate 25 of the conveyer is extended to the periphery of the roll 29 and the end of said plate is beveled or chamfered for contacting engagement with the periphery of the roll 29 and to form asubstantially sealed joint with said roll. The lower plate 27 at the entrance end of the conveyer is inclined downwardly as indicated at 27 and the lower plate also has its front end chamfered similarly to the upper plate 25 for engagement with the roll 29.

The plates 25, 27 are secured to, and held in spaced relationship by, a pair of side walls 35, 36 which are located at the side edges of the plates and cooperate with the plates to' form a suction compartment or the feeding rolls,20 and th gumming roll 12 to prevent the sheets h from d any other suitable material being of the type disclosed b No. 1,638,151, granted Aufi chamber 37. The rear of this compartment is closed by the transverse plate 28, and extending across the compartment adjacent to the front end thereof, is a pair of plates 38 which extend from the side walls 35, 36. and terminate short of the longitudinal center of e compartment to define an opening 39 which furnishes communication between the flared front hood 40, defined between the front ends of the plates 25, 27 and the compartment 37. pproximately at the center of the compartment 37 a suction hood 41 extends through the side wall 35 and terminates at its outer end in a suction mouth approximately at the longitudinal center of e machine. The other end of the suction 00d is connected to the u per end of a suction pipe 42, the lower end of which extends to any suitable source of suction (not shown).

Trained about the perforated or. foraminated roll 29 and an idler roll 43, located at the delivery end of the conveyer, is a conveyer belt 44 which may be of canvas or provided with interstices through which the suction may be exerted. The roll 43 is rotatably mounted in bearing brackets 43 secured to the ends of side rods 45, the other ends of said rods 45 eing pivotally mounted by .means of yoked ttings 46 and pivot pins 47 to the side frames 34. The rods 45 are also employed for supporting the suction compartment 37, a plurality of brackets 48 being secured to the side walls 35, 36 and having lugs 49 engaged Within supporting pockets extending laterally from brackets 50 mounted on said rods 45. Adjustment of the height of the delivery end of the conveyer is effected by means of a pair of inclined truss rods 51 pivotally connected at their upper ends by pins 52 to sleeves 53 mounted for slidable adjust ment longitudinally of the rods 45.

For the purpose of adjusting the distance between the rolls 29 and 43 and thereby insure the proper tension upon the conveyer belt 44, the brackets 43 are adapted to be moved longitudinally of the rods 45 by means of adjusting lock nuts 54 threaded on to the ends of said rods.

As will be noted from Fig. 4 of the drawings, the upper plate 25 is provided with perforations 26 across the entire width thereof in order that thc.conveyer will be operative to transport sheets approximately the full width of the conveyor belt. \Vhen sheets of the maximum width which the machine is designed to handle, are being car'- ried by the conveyer the majority of the holes 26 will be covered by the sheets and consequently a sufliciently strong suction will be exerted to hold the sheets securely to the conveyer. When, however, sheets of much smaller width than the full width of the conveyer are being handled, quite a large number ofv the holes 26 will not be covered er sheets as with larger, the following means are provided: Located between the side walls 35, 36 for slidable movement transversely of the compartment 37 are a pair of bafile plates 55, 56 which contact along their upper and lower edges with the plates 25, 27 respectively to form a neat sliding fit therewith and which at their front and rear edges contact respectively with transverse plates 38 and 28. Rotatably mounted in suitable hearing brackets provided in the side walls 35, 36 are a pair of screws 57, 58 which extend transversely across the compartment 37, the screw 57 being arranged adjacent to one end of the compartment and the screw 58 adjacent to the other end thereof. Each of the screws is provided with Ea right hand threaded and a left hand threaded portion for engagement respectively with nuts 59 and 60, the nuts 59 being secured to the baffle plate 56 and the nuts 60 secured to the baffle plate 55. The central portions of each shaft 57, 58 are unthreaded and are rotatably supported in bearing brackets 61 secured to the bottom plate 27. Adjacent to each bearing bracket 61 each shaft has secured thereto .a

sprocket wheel 62, about which sprocket wheels is trained a sprocket chain 63 for causing the threaded shafts to be rotated in unison. Rotation of the shafts 57, 58 is accomplished by means of an operating handle 64 secured to one end of the shaft 57 which end, as shown, projects through-the side wall 36 and through a bracket 65 mounted. on the side rod 45. Secured tothe shaft 57 between the bracket 65 and the side wall 36 is a helical gear 66 which meshes with a similar idler gear 67:, secured upon a short shaft 68 journalled in the bracket 65 and extending in parallelism with the side rod 45. The shaft 68 carries a worm 69 which meshes with worm gear teeth 70 provided on the periphery of an indicating dial 71, the latter being mounted upon a stub shaft- 72 jour nalled in an upwardly extending bearing lug 73 formed integral with the bearing bracket 65. The face of the dial .71 is provided with suitable indicia. A pointer 74 projectsupwardly from the lug 73 in cooperative relationship to the indicia on the dial 71.

It will be understood that the plate 56 is provided with a suitable apertured or cut out portion which en ages with a neat sliding fit about the suction hood 41.

Themanner, in' which the apparatus functions is as follows: The indicia upon the dial 71 are preferabl arranged to indicat the proper setting 0' the baffle plates 55, 56 for sheets of various widths in inches. Let it be assumed that the sheets 14 shown in the drawings are ten inches in width, the handle 64 is manipulated to bring the numeral 10 in register with the pointer 74, the battle plates 55, 56 thereby being brought to a position such as indicated-in Fig. 4 of the drawings.

When the machine is so set .it will be readily understood that only that-partof the suction compartment 37 located between the baflie plates 55, 56 will be in communication with the suction hood 41.. Consequently although the vlarge number of holes 26, located outwardly of the baffle plates 55, 56 and between them and the sideedges of the belt, is not covered by the sheets 14, these holes 26 are not in communication with the suction hood and thereforethere can be no tendency for the suction "effect to be dissipated by the inrush of a 'l'a rg'e volume of air through the outer holes 26. Thesheets 14 are placed close enough to eachother along the belt so that by far the greatest number of the holes 26 along the length of; the belt between the baflle plates 55,. 56 is covered by the sheets 14 and consequently the construction insures that each sheet'will be held securely to the upper reach of the conveyer in a flat condi tion.

The. apparatus being put in operation the suction feeder 15 is oscillated and will re move the sheets,one at a time, from the stack thereof and deliver the front edge of each sheet to the bight of the feed rollers 20, by

which the sheet will be fed to the gumming roll 12. The roll 12 being coated with adhesive, it will engage the front edge of the sheet andcarryit upwardly about the roll to the take-ofi orreversing fingers 22. The lower ends of the take-off fingers 22 pro jecting into the grooves of the roller 12 will cause the' sheet to be stripped from the said roll and deflected upwardly by the grooved front 'face ofQthe take-off fingers into con tact with the conveyer belt 44.

As theco'mpartment 37 of the conveyer belticommunicates through the opening 39 with'the flaringnozzle 40 at the entrance end of the conveyor, the suction effect is communicated through the apertures in that portion of the-hollow roll 29 located between the .front ends of the plates 25 and 27 to the interior'of the hollow roll 29 and thence to of the reversing or take-ofl' finglers 22. This suction eflect exerted through t 7 they can be carried along conveyer belt movable across said e roll 29 and conveyer belt therefore insures that the sheets will be held closely adhered to the conveyer belt by the suction and curling up of the sheets, due to the influence of the moisture, is absolutely prevented.

The rotation of the roll 29, which roll is employed as the driving roll of the conveyer, causes the conveyer belt 44 to carry the sheets upwardl to the upper reach of said belt, along which the sheets are carried to thedelivery end of the conveyer. As the sheets pass the transverse plate 28, located adjacent to the said delivery end, the suction hold upon the sheets will be released so that by the feeding mechanism of the machine iZOWhiCh the conveyer mechanism is intended to deliver.

It will be understood that many changes, variations and modifications from the constructional details of the apparatus selected for illustration may be resorted to without departing from the principles of the invention.

We claim:

1. In apparatus for handling and transporting paper sheets or labels, a suction conveyer belt, means defining a closed compartment across which said belt travels, a source of suction communicating with the interior of said compartment and adjustable baflie members for varying the width of the eflective suction area of said belt.

2. In apparatus for handling and trans porting paper. sheets or labels, means defining a compartment closed on the bottom,

sides and one end thereof and a foraminated top, a conveyor belt having interstices through which suction may be exerted, means to cause said belt to travel across the foraminated top of said compartment, a source of suction communicating with the interior of said compartment and adjustable means to vary width of the area of the suction exerted through said foraminated top upon said conveyor belt.

In apparatus for handling and transporting paper sheets or labels, a suction compartment consisting of end walls, a pair of closed side walls, and a foraminated top, a to and meansfor varying the width of the e ective area exerted through said suction compartment upon said belt.

- 4. An appartus as set forth in claim 3 in tudinally of said compartment in 5. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which manually operable means are provided for adjusting the position of the bafiie members and indicating means are associated with said manually o erable means for indicating the width 0 the effective suction area of the conveyer belt.

6. In a suction conveyer, a supporting frame work, a pair of side walls secured to said frame work in spaced relationship to each other, a bottom wall and a foraminated top Wall secured to said side walls, and a pair of end walls, said side walls, top and bottom walls and end walls defining a suction compartment, a suction nozzle extending through one of said walls and communicating with the interior of said compartment, a pair of baflie members extending 1ongiparallelism with saidside walls and means to move said baflie members transversely of said compartment while maintaining them in parallelism with said side walls.

In a suction conveyer, a supporting frame work, a pair of side walls secured to said frame work in spaced relationship to each other, a bottom wall and a foraminated top wall secured to said side walls and a pair of end walls, said side walls, top and bottom walls and end walls defining a suction compartment, a suction nozzle extending through one of said walls and communicating with the interior of said compartment, a pair of shafts each having an oppositcly threaded portion journalled in said side walls and extending transversely of said compartment, a pair of bafiie members extending longitudinally of said compartment in parallelism with the side walls thereof, each of said. bafile members having means in threaded engagement with the similarly threaded portions of said pair of shafts, means for rotating one of said shafts and, a connecting transmission to cause the rotation of said one shaft to produce a similar rotation of the other shaft.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

PAUL W. FLEISGHER. CARL LAMBELET. 

